SPECIAL REPORT: The ‘Baby Holly’ mystery and the Yuma connection

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - In 1981, detectives discovered the remains of a young couple strangled and beaten to death.

A GRUESOME DISCOVERY

“What they found were two skeletonized sets of remains that have obviously been there for a while. We didn’t know if they were brother and sister or if they were a couple. It was just a really sad set of circumstances that led to it taking so long to solve the mystery,” said Allison Peacock, an investigative genetic genealogist who worked closely with officials on the case.

After four decades, advancements in forensic genealogy led the couple to eventually be identified as Dean and Tina Clouse.

Investigators also discovered that the couple had a newborn baby named Holly who was missing.  

The big question for investigators became; "What ever happened to baby Holly?"

A KNOCK AT THE DOOR

In November of 1980, Pastor Philip McGoldrick heard a knock at his door while working at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Yuma.

“So I open the door crack and said can I help you? I see two ladies dressed in white. I’m expecting them to ask for money or something like that. They said what we really need is somebody to take care of this baby,” said McGoldrick.

That baby was Holly Marie Clouse.

“They explained that no, we’re not looking for someone to babysit. We want someone to take this baby off our hands with the idea of raising her,” said McGoldrick.

The women who dropped off Holly were part of a nomadic cult called the “Christ Family."

Yvonne Peach, the owner of the Historic Coronado Motel, said she saw the group wandering around Yuma throughout the eighties 

“There was just a group of people that came around that corner and I seen them. They looked like they just walked out of the Bible to me. I have never seen anyone like that in my whole life, ” said Peach.

A FAMILY REUNION

McGoldrick would adopt Holly and raise her as his own. McGoldrick and Holly had no idea that her biological parents were murdered.

“My dad told me that the women in white robes brought me to him and I didn’t know anything about the murders until the investigators came knocking on my restaurant door, ” said Holly.

The visit from investigators came in 2022 after genealogists had traced Holly to Dean and Tina Clouse.

Investigators broke the news to Holly that her parents were murdered over 40 years ago and that her biological family had been searching for her this entire time.

“I was just really overwhelmed with grief that they had been murdered and what had happened to us. But at the same time, I had this other family that had been searching for me and praying for me, ” said Holly.

Holly is now 42 years old, lives in Oklahoma, and has a family of her own.

The murders of Dean and Tina Clouse remain unsolved.

Officials are urging anyone with information about the murders of Dean and Tina Clouse or the Christ Family Cult to contact the Texas Attorney General’s Office at babyhollytips@oag.Texas.Gov

Watch the full special report on Wednesday, December 20 on News 11.